When an Indian filmmaker tries to remake International films with no soul then it can be termed lazy at best and ridiculous at worst. Precisely because why would Indians need to look somewhere else when we have such great stories of ourselves to tell?
More importantly, folk has never been addressed with sensitivity by the Hindi film industry. We do realise that Laila Majnu originated from Persia but its influence was very strong in North Indian literature.
Apart from Laila Majnu, Punjab has four extremely profound folk tales of love, namely Sassi Punnu, Sohni Mahiwal, Heer Ranjha and Mirza Sahiban.
Now, except Sassi Punnu, all three of them have been adapted into films of not so great merit.
Coming to foreign love stories we have Shireen Farhad and Romeo-Juliet.
After making or, let’s say, ordering the masterpiece of Laila Majnu (2018), Imtiaz Ali is ready to make another love story.
This is extraordinarily exciting news.
The man has teased this on his Instagram and the speculations have already begun.
Be it the passion of Sohni in crossing Chanaab, or the spiritual love of Heer for Ranjha, even the dilemma of Sahiba in breaking arrows and Romeo’s craziness—folk tales are unapologetic, raw and intense. They carry several layers of messages and spirituality that can’t be possible in today’s time.
We hope that Imtiaz Ali makes films on all of those love stories and that all of them come out to be great. Love as a theme should never be suppressed, the more we teach our generations to love, the better world we will be creating. Fingers crossed, let’s hope that all these films materialise and cross hurdles the same way Sohni did while swimming across Chanaab.
Meanwhile, if you are patient with long-duration songs, then we can recommend some good songs based on these folk tales.
Paar Chanaa De (Coke Studio Pakistan)
Kheryaan De Naal (Coke Studio Pakistan)
Doli Re Doli Chali (Mirzya)